Rude awakening: parties hang up on robocalls

A string of early-morning calls to irate South Australians has prompted both sides of politics to look at scrapping robocalls.

South Australians have been woken twice by robocalls from the state government. Picture: istock

Political robocalls would be banned in South Australia under a Labor plan after an amateurish computer bungle saw the State Liberal Party make hundreds of early-morning phone calls to irate South Australians.

But the Liberals might go further than the ALP, proposing a broader inquiry into voter harassment including robocalls, phone canvassing, even election posters and polling booth how-to-vote cards, in a bid to regain public trust after voters were woken at dawn two days running by computer-generated phone calls from State Liberal headquarters.

A furious Premier Steven Marshall yesterday lashed out at his own State Liberal division and demanded they fix the glitch that caused irritating computer-generated phone calls gauging voter sentiment on his government’s performance.

The problem began on Wednesday with the calls starting at the ungodly hour of 6.15am, with the Liberal Party apologising later that day and promising there would be no repeat.

Embarrassingly, it continued yesterday morning with residents in the Adelaide Hills being woken up early by a second bout of calls.

SA Premier Steven Marshall. Picture: Tait Schmaal

The Australian understands the problem arose when someone — either a Liberal staff member or an employee of outside polling company — accidentally wrote “AM” instead of “PM” when logging the time at which the software program should make the calls.

“These questions will take approximately 90 seconds and all you have to do is press numbers on your phone,” the robocall said.

“Thinking of South Australia as a whole, do you generally think South Australia is genuinely heading in the right direction, or do you think South Australia is seriously heading in the wrong direction?

“Press one if it is heading in the right direction, press two if it is heading in the wrong direction, press three if you’re unsure or can’t say.”

The bungle lit up talkback radio with elderly people calling in saying they had been woken at dawn by the phone ringing and presumed that one of their relatives must have died.

But yesterday, Mr Marshall made an angry phone call himself, revealing he had rung State Liberal president and former premier John Olsen demanding an end to the shambles.

SA Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas. Picture: Keryn Stevens

“This morning, the Premier called Liberal Party State President John Olsen and expressed his severe anger that the robocalls continued for a second day,” a spokeswoman said.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said the Premier had not gone far enough and said that, if elected, he would ban all robocalls by political parties at future campaigns and at any stage of the electoral cycle.

“People hate these calls and if we are elected we will amend the electoral laws to ban them, and we challenge the Government to do so this term, and will offer our full support,” Mr Malinauskas told The Australian.

In a bid to wrest control of the issue, the Premier responded that he would go even further, and also chipped Labor as “masters of using robocalls for their scare campaigns”.

But he conceded the robocall fiasco had been embarrassing for the State Liberals.

“What has happened over the last couple of days has been completely and utterly unacceptable,” he said.

“Quite frankly it’s time for an overall review of campaigning in SA. We should put everything on the table: what happens on election day, what happens with how-to-vote cards, what happens with election posters that go up right around the state. I think it’s actually time for reform right across the board.”